| China had been implementing the "municipally affiliated county" system ever since1959, which had promoted the development of the economy and the society at the very beginning. However, the disadvantages of this system gradually emerged in the1990s. Not only had this financial management system increasingly become the bondage of the development of the county economy, but it also increased the administration costs, resulting to the push of the "province governing county" system since1990s.There are mainly there models of province governing county reform. One is administration-alike management combined with delegating powers to strong counties, epitomized by Zhejiang province. Another pattern is administration management combined with delegating powers to strong counties, in which Hainan province and Chongqing Municipality are tipical examples. The last type is fiscal management combined with delegating powers,in which Hubei province and Anhui Province are good examples. Theorotially, the "province governing county" system is more efficient and reasonable compared with "municipally affiliated county" system.In order to study the practical effect of this system, this paper mainly conducts close research on the reform mode of Zhejiang province, Hubei Province and Anhui province and selects52counties in Hubei Province for empirical study. These counties are divided into3categories according to the degree of the economy development:the strong economy counties, the weak economy counties and the medium economy counties. After the implementation of the "province-county directly-relating district" financial system in2004, the public revenues and the public expenditures of these counties has greatly strengthened, while the trend of expanding fiscal gap and declining public fiscal self-sufficient ration remains. Regarding to the level of the basic public service, the declining trend of compulsory education service level has been restrained and the public health service level has been improving in both strong and weak counties while the infrastructrue services are enhanced, with greater growth rate in strong economy than in the weak ones after the implementation of the "province administrating county" system. In the aspects of the equalization of each kind of basic public services, the implementation of the "province governing county" system has widden the gap of compusory education and bridged the gap of infrastructure services between counties while no obvious change has been witnessed in public health service level.Accoring to the study of the basic public service provided in the counties as a whole, it can be seen that the "province governing county" system has promoted the equalization of basic public services in the counties.The multivariate linear regression analysis also reveals that improving the financial capacity, reducing the financial supported population, accelerating the urbanization rate can also stimulate the equalization of basic public service.Due to the theorotical and practical feasibility of implementing the"province governing county" system and the positive role it plays in promoting the equalizaiton of basic public service, promoting this system is of great significance. In order to fully realize the effect of the system, it is necessary to explore multiplied reform patterns which are suitable for each province and county, so as to improve steadily the financial capacity of the counties. On that basis, implementing the administrative reform to asist the"province governing county" system reform to save administrative costs, laying the financial foundation for the the equalizaiton of basic public service. In addition, attention should be paid to the goal of the "province governing county" system reform, ensuring that every field of the basic public services are equally developed. Finally, other important influencing factors should be considered in order to promote the equalizaiton of basic public services. |
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